Rijksmuseum, which means “The State Museum” in English, is famous for its Dutch paintings and world arts. Apart from this, the museum also exhibits a unique collection of antique objects that represents the Dutch culture, wide range of prints, classic photography, and drawings.

Each year, around 2.5 million people visit Rijksmuseum that spans around 1.5 km. There are many interesting facts about this amazing museum that you can observe during your Rijksmuseum tour. Some of the interesting facts about the museum are listed below.

Rijksmuseum started gathering unique items even 100 years before the opening of the museum. No wonder, they have around 1 million objects in their collection today. However, they only exhibit 8000 of them at a time.

This is the only museum in the world, which has a road in it. Until 1931, the road was open for all the motor vehicles. Later, it was closed considering the poor condition of the building and the collections after that. However, the road is still open for bicycles.

Rijksmuseum is proud to house the largest library in the Netherlands. This amazing library on the second floor of the building is open to the public. If you find it difficult to understand any paintings over here, just rush to this vast library and clear your doubts.

In Amsterdam, the first solid foundation is 15 meters below the ground level. So, most of the buildings here, including the Rijksmuseum, are built on wooden piles. It is hard to believe that the museum is constructed over nearly 8000 wooden piles, which is still supporting the building.

Do you know the museum was closed for almost 10 years? In 2003, they dug the tunnel below the road in the museum as a part of the renovation works going on. Suddenly, the water from the nearby canal flooded the museum and it took nearly 10 years for restoration of Rijksmuseum.

The famous Night Watch painting of the Dutch artist Rembrandt Van Rijn was bit larger when it was made. Later, they cut a small portion of the painting because the wall on which the painting was exhibited in the Amsterdam’s city hall was not big enough to accommodate it.

The walls in Rijksmuseum are crammed with the rulers, artists, and other important events in the Dutch history. In the year 1960, these paintings were whitewashed in order to draw visitors’ attention only to their showcased paintings. Luckily, all these wall arts were brought back in 2013, as they were preserved under the white layer of paint.